Breathe In, Breathe Out

Everybody is whining over the prices of gasoline and petroleum. It is fact one of the world's most pressing concerns. Because of that, people are looking for alternatives to be used in powering vehicles.

Aside from electricity and water, air seems to be a potential source of power for automobiles. This was shown by the project developed by mechanical engineering students from Dalhousie University, Canada.

The study was about using compressed O2 to run a go-kart. Based on the test runs that were done, the air powered go-kart performs as good as electric powered go-karts.

The air powered vehicle was able to finish three rounds in the test laps with the speed of 43 km/h by 2 minutes using two tanks containing equal amounts of air.

The mechanical engineering students used a 40-year old snowmobile engine and modified it for the project. They made the compressed air ran through its engine so it can produce power similar to a gas engine. The engine was then attached to a revamped go-kart.

Two scuba tanks were used to contain the compressed air and by means of a standard scuba fitting with a high-flow regulator, the air was released and it went through the tubing leading to a ball valve connected to the foot pedal and throttle.

The project still has a long way to be completely furnished. If it pushes through, it will really be a convenient choice for motorists since AIR is just around us. We don't actually see it but it's there and it comes FREE of charge.